How to Run a Meeting

One thing that really frustrated me as a new leader many moons ago was that I got so little guidance in how to plan and run a meeting.  Our trainer kept saying "girl planning" but the process she described sounded like it would take so long that we would never do anything.  She passed out a guide to the first six meetings, which ended with an investiture.  I'm sure the plan was based on us meeting weekly, whereas that troop met once a month.  

Since that didn't work, I turned to my memories of my Girl Scout days, and to the "Try-It" badge book that was the program at that time.  Girls earned Try-Its by completing four activities, each of which took about fifteen minutes.  Well, that made planning easy.

Girls of Brownie age need you to give them something to do, or they are going to find something to do, probably something you don't want them to do.  Also, they are high-energy creatures at this age.  They are not going to just sit around and talk to friends.  You need a routine and a plan.

When I had troops that met after school, the first thing we would do is go out to the playground for snack and free play.  Then we would play a game that counted for a Try-It requirement before heading inside.  Once we got inside, we would complete the activites of the day (usually 3-4 Try-It requirements) before closing with a flag ceremony, Girl Scout Promise and Friendship Circle.  

Now that we meet in the evening, I have girls straggling in from ten minutes early to ten minutes late. When they come in, I always have some "bell work" for them to do--an activity they can do with little to no supervision that may or may not be connected to the other things we are doing that night.  Basically I am talking about coloring sheets, word searches or similar things.  That way I can greet girls, talk to parents or finish preparing the big activities of the evening.  Between five and ten minutes after the meeting starts, we put up the crayons and move to the flag for our flag ceremony and opening.  At that time I will do any necessary teaching or large group instruction.  I will talk about what we are doing that night and why we are doing it.  We then move into the meat of the meeting, and generally speaking I try to have a least two and maybe three activities for this part of the meeting.  Finally, we have snack and social time, followed by a closing friendship circle.  

Girl Scouts River Valleys has very good meeting plans available on their website and I've heard that other councils are in the process of putting up more realistic plans than those shown in the Journey Handbooks.